The simple rubber band is a nifty item with many different uses that range from simple, functional purposes (keeping bundles of papers together) to clever, creative ones (turning regular jeans into maternity pants) to downright silly pranks (we\u2019ve all been victims of the slingshot rubber band to get our attention). \u00a0You\u2019ll find a plethora of them in all shapes and sizes and colors all over your home. \u00a0You will also find them in a barn. \u00a0If you are easily made squeamish, you might want to stop reading at the end of this sentence. \u00a0Why? \u00a0Well, there is method called \u201cbanding\u201d that all ranchers know. \u00a0It is the most common method used to castrate a buckling or ram lamb by placing a rubber band around the male parts of livestock. \u00a0We\u2019ve had to perform this act a few times now. \u00a0Our kids do not shy away from any opportunity to learn something new on our franch. \u00a0But, for this franch task, it was a little awkward to hear, \u201cCan I do it too, dad?\u201d \u00a0It turned out to be an impromptu opportunity to teach our curious children some real-life anatomy. \u00a0My husband explained the different male parts, and how to make sure the testes is pulled through the band with the scrotum without forgetting to detail why that was important. \u00a0Eventually, the male parts shrivel up and simply drop off after a couple of weeks. \u00a0That\u2019s all it takes \u2013 a rubber band. \u00a0Squeamish yet? \u00a0Perhaps, Stephen Perry wouldn\u2019t have followed through on his invention of the rubber band in 1845 had he known castration would be on the list of its many uses. \u00a0This same method is also used to dock the tail of our sheep. \u00a0My daughter likes to search the pasture for the tails once they are no longer attached. \u00a0It\u2019s like a treasure hunt for her. \u00a0Thankfully, she has been lucky enough to only so far find tails… \u00a0It\u2019s likely you will never look at a rubber band again without thinking about how ranchers castrate their livestock.<\/p>\n
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The simple rubber band is a nifty item with many different uses that range from simple, functional purposes (keeping bundles of papers together) to clever, creative ones (turning regular jeans into maternity pants) to downright silly pranks (we\u2019ve all been victims of the slingshot rubber band to get our attention). \u00a0You\u2019ll find a plethora of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/franchlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/franchlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/franchlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/franchlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/franchlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=404"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/franchlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":983,"href":"https:\/\/franchlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404\/revisions\/983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/franchlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/franchlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/franchlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}